REQUIEM
by mymistrust
Summary: One-shots set on Deathly Hollow. Horrible book, in my humble opinion, so I had to save my dearest characters' memories...
1. If Nothing Happens

**- REQUIEM -**

**I - If Nothing Happens**

**by ~Lipsum**

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****Characters: Neville Longbottom / Luna Lovegood**

**Genre: Drama / Friendship | Word count: 507 | Rated: PG-13 | Category: One-shot.**

**WARNING: DH spoilers.**

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"Neville?"

"Yeah, Luna?"

"What if nothing happens?"

He could not answer right away. Actually, he was not sure he understood the question at all. One never knows, when they are talking with Luna "Looney" Lovegood... Her questions were always ambiguous and they usually meant more than it sounded at first. He had learned that not long ago.

They were lying side by side on the grass by the lake, staring at the grey clouds forming funny silhouettes above them. They liked to play that old game of associating those cloudy figures to something. It was fun playing it with Luna. She'd always see strange things, like warckspurts, heliopaths and whatnot.

The sun was setting, but it was up enough to give them some light and warmth. Autumn was coming, and with it, the chill in the windy days. But nor Neville or Luna cared about it. They had found out, in the strangest way, that they both liked to lay down on the grass and stare at the sky, especially in chilly, windy days like that. Because then the clouds would be even funnier to look at, changing its shapes rapidly.

Before they could understand why, they already met at least once a week to look up to the sky and its clouds. It was like a silent commitment they both had agreed.

They did not talk much at those times - except to say "oh, it looks like a thestral" or something. But some days Luna would ask questions like that, unexpected, mysterious questions, that just triggered in Neville the feeling of complete dumbness. "What if nothing happens what, Luna?"

"Everything." She looked at him, who was still looking at the sky. "The war". She would have shrugged if she was standing.

"The war is already going on, Luna", he could feel her soft gaze on him, but he did not dare to look back. He knew since early this year that, for some reason, she had laid on him all her trust. Neville had become her guide, somehow. He had become the leader of all of them, the ones left in Hogwarts, the ones that dared to fight against Voldemort if the call ever came. It was something that still frightened him, but at the same time, the more people trusted him to make the decisions, the more he felt like he could not disappoint them. "Harry, Ron and Hermione are out there already, fighting only Merlin knows what".

"And we stay here?"

"We have to protect the school, Luna. You, me, Ginny... Everybody else who is left of Dumbledore's Army".

She sighed. His answers never satisfied her completely. Maybe because it did not satisfied him as well. "Yeah, but... What if nothing happens?"

He finally looked at her, but her gaze was lost in the grey clouds again. He had missed it for a second.

Nonetheless, he understood the true meaning of the question. And it scared the shit out of him.

"I don't know, Luna. I don't know."

**Finis.**


	2. Like tiny little stars

**- REQUIEM -**

**II - Like Tiny Little Stars**

**by ~Lipsum

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**Characters: Luna Lovegood / Ginny Weasley**

**Genre: Drama / Friendship | Word count: 433 | Rated: G | Category: One-shot**

**WARNING: DH spoilers.

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She couldn't think straight.

She could only stare out the window. Where would he be?

It was a chilly night with no moon, leaving only the bright stars to give some light to that pitch dark night outside. No human form could be seen walking outside the castle. It was not a night for a walk. Since day one, when so few of the students had showed up at school, Hogwarts seemed chilly and uninviting. But it still felt like home. A cold, abandoned-like home, but home nonetheless.

Ginny could not understand it.

She sighed and slowly let her forehead rest against the window's cold glass.

She did understand, actually. She understood perfectly fine, she was just having a hard time admitting it.

Hogwarts felt like home because it was home, period. Just because things were going bad it did not mean it had stopped being home. But something was missing.

"Are you thinking about them?"

Ginny almost let the books she was carrying fall to the floor. She turned, flushed, to face Luna looking at her with her very serene gaze. "Thinking about who?" she asked, dumbfounded.

"Oh" Luna shrugged and took a few steps closer. The corridor was empty. "You know. Them." Actually, the whole Hogwarts seemed empty lately.

Ginny arched an eyebrow. "Ron? Harry? Hermione?", Luna insisted. "I think about them all the time".

"Who doesn't?" Ginny tried to smile. Failed miserably.

Luna stared at her for a little while. Ginny looked to her shoes. "It's going to be okay, Ginny".

"How can you be so sure?"

"Well, you know him. He is the always great Harry Potter, right?" Luna smiled.

Ginny turned her back to Luna and resumed looking out the window. "Then why did he leave us all?"

Luna got closer to Ginny and said, calmly. "Life is like that, Ginny. Sometimes you even feel like you can have friends. But then they go away. I thought everybody knew that already". She shrugged.

Ginny turned to her, filled with empathy. "It's okay, Ginny. Don't worry. We always overcome things like that. Friends are like... tiny little stars. Always there, but very distant".

"I'm your friend, Luna".

"That's what makes you so distant, then". Luna shrugged, as if she was talking about the weather. "We have a Dumbledore's Army meeting in fifteen minutes. Are you ready?"

The red-haired girl tried to sound indifferent, but she could not even convince herself: "Sure. Let's go". She did not have the ability of Luna - sound so cool about serious matters.

And side by side, they walked away from the window, the night outside and all of its tiny little stars.

**Finis**


	3. Stolen serenity

**- REQUIEM -**

**III - Stolen Serenity**

**by ~Lipsum

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**Characters:** Lupin/Tonks

**Genre:** Angst / Romance | **Word count:** 414 | **Rated:** PG | **Category:** One-shot

**WARNING:** DH spoilers.**

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Tonks was silent, cradling Teddy against her breast, feeding and caressing him, looking at him. Even though she seemed focused on the baby, her mind was miles away, on some distant event on the past - or maybe the future. Her movements all seemed to be on auto-pilot, even the stroking of the baby's sparse hair.

Funny enough, holding Teddy was the only moment in Tonks' life when she wasn't as clumsy as it was natural of her. She seemed very confident, very self-assured when holding him, even when her mind was so far away from her task.

Lupin knew it. He could smell Tonks' rambling in the air. The wolf inside him never really slept - it was always there, lending him some of its senses.

She still had not noticed him by the door jamb. He was not sure if he wanted to be noticed at all. His presence would break the spell - the young, quiet woman feeding her son.

Their son.

He smiled at them.

A moment of serenity, just for a change.

But she could not appreciate it fully - she never would. Not while darkness was stalking every and single moment of serenity in their lives. A crease of worry had emerged in her forehead, making her oh so young face look older. And Lupin was afraid that he was the one to blame for that, at least partially.

She could not rest. Lupin knew it. Even when they made love, even when they were lying side by side on their bed, looking at each other - he could feel it. The fear, the restlessness in her mind, leaving her with nightmares at night and bad feelings the whole day. She would always smile though, as if she did not feel what she felt. Tonks thought she could fool him. Well, she could not - as much as he could not fool her about his worries.

Maybe the only true moment of serenity since all of that started was when Teddy was born. That day, when he first saw his son, she was happy. She was hopeful. Their son had given both of them more sense, more meaning to fight.

That war...

Lupin sighed.

He didn't think twice before turning around and leaving Tonks alone with their son.

Let her have a few minutes of stolen serenity, then, thought Lupin. One never knows what tomorrow brings. They might not be always there to Teddy... or to each other.

**Finis**


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